I just thought that I should share this little story. It may help someone, sometime.

Two weeks ago, my older Altima, that had been previously been running just fine, started up after sitting for a day or two. It ran for 5 seconds, then died. And would not start again. It just cranked and cranked to no avail. Fortunately, we were at home when this happened.

My son and I thought that it must be the fuel pump. So we disassembled the fuel line to the injectors after depressurizing the line and found there was plenty of pressure.

What could it possibly be?

I pulled a plug and checked for spark. It seemed kinda weak, but it was there. The car had been running previously pretty good.

I decided however to go ahead and change the plugs, because they had not been replaced in many years.

Nope, still wouldnt start.

The next day, after thinking about it over night, I decided that it might be a good idea to change the rotor and cap, too. What else could i do, anyway. So, I did.

Guess what. It started right up. After a re-evaluation of how many times I've changed the plugs and rotor cap, in the past, I could not remember ever doing it.

I've had this car for several years now. It has 160451 miles on it, 130000 are mine. I doubt that the previous owner ever changed the plugs, rotor and cap, either.

So, the lesson here is that you probably should replace the plugs, rotor and cap at least once every 160000 miles. Never let it go the other 451 miles beyond that <wink>.